Finally, despite the complete lack of Cypriot toilets,
this page was awarded the
Window on Cyprus
award for captivating content!

What Is a Press Interview Like?

That really depends on the quality of the interviewer.
Some, like
Luke Malone
of Vocativ and
Jean-Christophe Laurence
of La Presse
do a great job.
By the time they contact me they already have a pretty good
outline of an article, and they have read a number
of pages on my site.

But in contrast...

Some of the supposed journalists who contact me seem to
have just decided five minutes ago to write an article
about toilets to fill space before a looming deadline.
They did a Google search, found my site, found the contact
info at the very bottom of every page, and sent me mail.

They start out with questions that indicate they haven't
looked at the page they found — Did I take the pictures
myself, do I have any pictures from France, and so on.
I explain that yes, as it says on the main page, I took
the pictures myself.
And notice that not only are toilets in France mentioned
near the top of the main page, every single page has a large
menu at the bottom with links to every page.

Then they ask again,
"But do you have any pictures of French toilets?"

Yes, I tell them again, here is the URL for the pictures
from France.
And notice how every page has a menu listing all the pages
on the site.

"But what about China?"

Yes, China is in that same menu.
But here's the URL if you somehow can't find it.

"But I'm really interested in France.
Have you ever seen the automated public toilets
in Paris?"

Yes, and I have several pictures of them.
Apparently you didn't look at the page about France.
Here's the URL again.

Honestly, it seems as if many of them want me to read the
pages to them over a series of e-mail messages.

Worst of all was The Sun.
The writer had clearly concluded that I was a complete freak,
a social misfit that people actively avoided in day-to-day
life, and if she kept asking the same questions about that
over and over and over then maybe I would admit to that
and she would have the story of her dreams.

No, sorry, I'm not a freak.
Just a guy with an odd collection of travel photos and
the idea to monetize them on a web site with ads.

"But what about filthy toilets?
Really, really, filthy toilets?
I want to see your pictures of really filthy toilets."

Well, here's the worst I have.

"No, no, I want to see pictures of really filthy toilets!
That's nothing!
I want to really really disgusting toilets!"

I'm pretty sure I wasn't the freak in that conversation.
Well, it was The Sun and a Rupert Murdoch
production after all, not like I should expect actual
journalism from one of Murdoch's properties.

A standard question is to ask why I think this is such an
important topic.
I always tell them, I don't think that it is.
But they apparently do, as they're the one who has searched
for information on the topic and contacted me.
Why do they think it's worth writing an article about?